An unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), unmanned aircraft, or drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board. The flight of a UAV may be controlled autonomously by computers on board the UAV or under the remote control of an operator or user on the ground or in another vehicle.
UAVs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and configurations and are used for civil and military applications including farming, surveillance, mapping, policing, firefighting, and security.
In small UAVs, the computational resources required for operation are generally located on the ground. The UAV transmits raw data (e.g., video streams, telemetry information, etc.) to a ground station computer which then processes the raw data. Such UAVs may be stabilised in flight by small flight control systems (e.g., an autopilot) and usually few additional electronic components beyond payload and actuators are provided. Flight control, behaviour, mission planning, and reaction to conditions are performed on the ground, typically by a user. Increasingly, the flight plan of the UAV is generated by the ground station computer based on a bounded area supplied by the user. Diagnostics are the responsibility of the user who needs to monitor weather conditions and sensor readings (e.g., autopilot temperature) and make decisions based on expected thresholds, etc. Moreover, mechanical diagnostics are performed by the user through visual inspection of the UAV's airframe. Thus, one problem with present UAVs relates to their limited self-diagnostic capability.
Another problem with present UAVs relates to their cost. While typically having limited functionality, UAVs are often still too expensive for many applications where they could be usefully deployed.
A need therefore exists for an improved UAV. Accordingly, a solution that addresses, at least in part, the above and other shortcomings is desired.